Mandatory standards, which differ from voluntary grades and standards applied to agricultural commodities, protect the consumer by ensuring a label accurately reflects what is inside (for example, that mayonnaise is not an imitation spread or that ice cream is not a similar but different frozen dessert).
For example, "whisky" is defined as "a potable alcoholic distillate obtained from a mash of cereal grain saccharified by diastase of malt or by other enzymes and fermented by the action of yeast".
In addition, the departments of the Federal government carry authority to set requirements for food products that are offered for interstate commerce.
Such standards are issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture,[4][5][6] the Food and Drug Administration[7][8][9] or the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Denominazione di Origine Controllata is the Italian quality assurance label for food products and especially wines.